West Coast Premiere of FAT HAM and More Set For Geffen Playhouse's 2023/24 Season

Geffen Playhouse has announced the seven productions that will make up the 2023/2024 season in its Gil Cates and Audrey Skirball Kenis Theaters. The season will feature the West Coast premiere of Fat Ham, which is now playing on Broadway.

The 2023/2024 season will launch September 6, 2023, and run through July 14, 2024. The lineup will feature a mix of world premieres, West Coast premieres and one Los Angeles premiere.

"The Geffen Playhouse 2023/2024 slate is inspired storytelling at its best, crossing myriad genres that will take audiences on an emotional journey of laughter, wonder and joy," said Geffen Playhouse Executive Director Gil Cates, Jr. "We're excited to be bringing new voices to our LA stages that are sure to become familiar favorites."

The 2023/2024 Gil Cates Theater season will launch with the West Coast premiere of The Engagement Party from playwright Samuel Baum, a secret-laden comedy that takes a dark and unexpected turn when a celebration goes horribly awry, irrevocably changing the lives of everyone involved. Next up in the Gil Cates Theater will be the Los Angeles premiere of Selina Fillinger's POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, a riotous and irreverent farce about the men who hold the power versus the women who get the job done.

The Gil Cates Theater season will continue with the West Coast premiere of the Broadway production of James Ijames' Fat Ham, his Pulitzer Prize-winning take on Hamlet, where we meet Juicy, a young, queer Black man with a Shakespearean-sized dilemma. Closing the Gil Cates Theater lineup will be the West Coast premiere of Mike Lew's heartfelt new play, tiny father.

The 2023/2024 Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater season will get off to a humorous start with Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe's Every Brilliant Thing, featuring Daniel K. Isaac (Billions) inviting the audience on a transcendent and tender coming-of-age journey that reminds us to pay attention to life's smallest joys-and to each other. Immediately following in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater will be two world premieres, beginning with Kristen Adele Calhoun's Black Cypress Bayou, a hilarious, suspenseful tale of loyalty, healing and comeuppance. Closing out the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater season will be the world premiere of The Hope Theory, an entirely new magical experience from the creators of Invisible Tango, The Present and The Future. Written and performed by magician and storyteller Helder Guimarães and directed by Frank Marshall, The Hope Theory offers a unique perspective on America through the eyes of an optimistic outsider. In a Geffen Playhouse first, five performances of The Hope Theory (La Teroía de la Esperanza) will be performed in Spanish.

The 2023/2024 season will also mark Geffen Playhouse's transition to a schedule of seven performances per week, with shows running from Wednesday through Sunday.

Geffen Playhouse will continue its longstanding relationships with City National Bank (CNB) as a presenting sponsor for one 2023/2024 season production, and UCLA Health as an opening night sponsor for its 2023/2024 season.

EVERY BRILLIANT THING (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)

Sep 6 - Oct 15, 2023

Written by Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe

Directed by Colm Summers

Featuring Daniel K. Isaac

"Ice cream." "Water fights." "Peeing in the sea and nobody knows." A boy's handwritten list to cheer up his despondent mom becomes a surprisingly funny and poignant ode to humanity. Daniel K. Isaac (Billions) takes audiences on a transcendent and tender coming-of-age journey that reminds us to pay attention to life's smallest joys-and to each other.

THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY (Gil Cates Theater)

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Oct 4 - Nov 5, 2023

Written by Samuel Baum

Directed by Darko Tresnjak

The champagne is on ice, the hors d'oeuvres are perfectly arranged, and the table is exquisitely set. At a luxurious Park Avenue apartment, a young couple is celebrating their engagement with an intimate gathering of family and friends. When a glass of wine is spilled, the night takes an unexpected turn, unleashing a spiraling sequence of events and revelations that will irrevocably change their lives.

Directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak, The Engagement Party's original production at Hartford Stage in 2019 was heralded as a "masterful piece of playwriting" and a "theatrical experience worth its 85 minutes in gold."

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive (Gil Cates Theater)

LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

Jan 17 - Feb 18, 2024

Written by Selina Fillinger

Directed by Jennifer Chambers

A derogatory comment, a summit gone awry, an anal abscess-it's a bad day at the White House. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, it inevitably falls on the seven women he relies on most to clean up the mess. Take a raucous romp through the halls of the West Wing in a riotous and irreverent farce about the men who hold the power vs. the women who get the job done.

BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)

WORLD PREMIERE

Feb 7 - Mar 17, 2024

Written by Kristen Adele Calhoun

Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene

On a hot summer night in Texas, Vernita Manifold summons her two daughters down to the bayou with a secret too big to keep. The richest, meanest man in town is dead, and the Manifold women know more than they're saying. As secrets begin to surface, the bonds between the women, their town, and the legacy of their ancestors all come to a head. Black Cypress Bayou is a hilarious, suspenseful world premiere about loyalty, healing, and comeuppance.

Major support for this world premiere production provided by the Edgerton Foundation New Play Production Fund.

FAT HAM (Gil Cates Theater)

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Mar 27 - Apr 28, 2024

Written by James Ijames

Directed by Saheem Ali

Associate Direction by Sideeq Heard

Produced in Association with No Guarantees, Public Theater Productions & Rashad V. Chambers

Meet Juicy, a young, queer Black man with a Shakespearean-sized dilemma. When the ghost of his dead father shows up at his family's BBQ wedding reception demanding his murder be avenged, does the poetic and sensitive Juicy have it in him to do the deed, or will he "to thine own self be true?" See what the New York Times calls "a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy," in this Pulitzer Prize-winning take on Hamlet, direct from Broadway to L.A.

Fat Ham first premiered in 2022 at The Public Theater as a co-production between National Black Theater and The Public Theater. Fat Ham made its Broadway premiere on April 12, 2023.

THE HOPE THEORY (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)

WORLD PREMIERE

Apr 25 - June 9, 2024

Written & Performed by Helder Guimarães

Directed by Frank Marshall

From the creators of Invisible Tango, The Present, and The Future comes an entirely new theatrical event. As a Portuguese immigrant, storyteller, and sleight-of-hand magician, Helder Guimarães arrived in America at age 29. Wide-eyed and full of ideas, he discovers a fascinating puzzle of cultural and professional challenges to solve while he tries to build a home. The Hope Theory offers a unique perspective on America through the eyes of an optimistic outsider.

Five performances of The Hope Theory (La Teoría de la Esperanza) will be performed in Spanish.

Major support for this world premiere production provided by the Edgerton Foundation New Play Production Fund.

tiny father (Gil Cates Theater)

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Jun 12 - Jul 14, 2024

Written by Mike Lew

Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel

When a "friends with benefits" relationship unexpectedly results in the early arrival of a baby girl, Daniel must choose between being a biological parent or becoming a father. With the help of a no-nonsense night nurse, the new dad learns to navigate the protocols and frustrations of NICU life on his uncertain path to parenthood in this funny and heartfelt new play where growth is measured in more than grams.